When Chelsea Left The Island
by Ryu-Sorairo
Summary: Sick of feeling like no one appreciates all her work, Chelsea decides to quit her job and let the needy residents of the islands fend for themselves...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Just a little story I wrote because Taro and the villagers really tick me off at the crop festival things when I don't come in first place. They get all disappointed and mad, and I'm always like "What's wrong with second place?" XD Anyways, enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think!

**Chapter 1**

Chelsea carried her basket of freshly picked produce into her house and set it down on her table, wiping the sweat from her forehead. It wasn't easy trying to run the whole ranch by herself, especially in the heat. But it had to be done. The island depended upon her ranch's success. She was the primary source of income for the _whole island_…

Talk about pressure to succeed.

She dumped her vegetables out onto her table and shifted through them, carefully inspecting each one. It was the morning of the Spring Crop Competition, and she _had_to win this time. Taro, who considered himself the leader of the island (despite the fact that he did nothing…) would start lecturing her in the middle of everyone again if she didn't. That's what he had done the past 3 times she'd lost…

Well, came second. She personally didn't consider second place bad. But Taro, he wanted perfection. He had to have the satisfaction of knowing his island was the best.

Chelsea sighed and put her head down on her table.

Whoever said farm life was simple…

She glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. Almost time for the judging to start. She picked up the largest potato of the bunch and placed it in her rucksack. The rest she put back in the basket and dumped in the shipping bin on her way to the festival in the meadow.

Taro was waiting for her just outside her ranch. "Where's your crop? Don't tell me you're not entering!"

She forced herself to give him a smile, despite how badly she wanted to tell him to back off for once. "Relax, I've got it right here. See?" She pulled the potato out of her rucksack.

He nodded. "Alright. It's not too bad. Maybe we have a chance this time."

"Yeah, I hope so." She took a breath and walked with him to the meadow.

She wasn't sure if she could take not winning again…

Because she wasn't sure if Taro could take her not winning again.

**x-x-x**

The award for best crop was handed to…

Another island.

Chelsea took her second place ribbon and chanced a glance at Taro, who of course wasn't smiling.

"Another disappointment." He said, walking over to her.

"I came second again! Another ribbon, see?" She gave him a smile, hoping it would diffuse the situation a little. It didn't. If anything he looked even more ticked. She glanced down at her potato. "Second place isn't bad!"

"It is when there's only four of you competing!"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Normally she would just say "Yes sir, sorry sir, I'll try to do better next time" and end the conversation.

But this time she didn't. She was tired of getting told what a disappointment she was.

She put a hand on her hip. "What's so bad about coming second? I mean, I know it's not winning, but I tried my best."

"That's the problem! You always get second, you're always fine with it, and you always say that you'll try harder next time! But you don't! You're always too busy running around with that dang boyfriend of yours!" He glanced around, hoping Vaughn was there so he could give him a good talking too as well.

"I only get to see him twice a week!"

Taro pounded his stick on the ground. "That's no excuse to slack off twice a week! Dang it, Chelsea! You're just so…lazy and selfish!"

She almost dropped her potato. "Whoa, I know I'm not the world's greatest farmer, but that does not make me lazy! And wanting to hang out with Vaughn doesn't make me selfish! I run around this island from six in the morning until six at night running a whole ranch by myself and still trying to help you guys! I work harder than anyone else on this island!"

This caused several of the islanders to turn around and glare at her.

"Excuse me? I work just as hard at fishing as you do at farming!" Denny said, frowning. A few people nodded in agreement.

"And if it wasn't for us, none of your mediocre crops would even get shipped!" Natalie added.

"Don't forget about my mining company!" Regis added, twirling his mustache. "You have yet to give me any gem of substantial quality! Why, you're lucky I pay you at all!"

Chelsea blinked. She couldn't believe everyone was turning on her like this! "Well I'm not exactly rolling in my dough! Everything I make gets spent on improving this island! Who paid for all of the roads? Or earned this island enough of an income to expand all of your houses? ME!"

Denny crossed his arms. "Yeah, well….All you did was supply some money. Who actually _built _all those things? Gannon did!"

Everybody nodded in agreement, patting Gannon on the back. He grinned as sheepishly someone his size could.

"Hey, let's not forget that she made 300 dollars all by herself…shipping flowers!" Regis said with a sneer.

Lanna flipped her blonde hair. "Oh please! Anyone can do that!"

"Yeah, and sprinkle some water on some weeds!" Natalie added, laughing.

"Oh, let's not forget chopping a few twigs!"

"And pulling some seaweed off of a rock?"

Chelsea's face turned bright red as all of her neighbors and so called friends started chiming in, laughing about how mediocre and easy her work was. She bit her bottom lip to keep herself from crying and slipped out of the crowd, heading back to her ranch.

She opened the door to her ranch house and sighed, glancing around. The past three years she'd lived in this run down place, and hadn't complained. She hadn't even been able to upgrade it, because all of her money got spent on everyone else.

But she was just so selfish like that.

A tear actually did escape her eye this time and she took off her rucksack, throwing it on her bed. _Nobody _appreciated all the effort she'd put in these past few years trying to make the island nice for everybody. All the days she'd spend running errands and collecting ingredients for Pierre and helping Elliot carry crates to the docks because he was too weak to carry them himself.

She took out each piece of her farming equipment and placed it on the floor, then took out a pad of paper and a pencil. She walked over to her table and scribbled a short note on it, then placed it on top of the farming equipment.

She glanced out the window. Everyone was probably still having fun at the festival, so now would be the perfect time to slip away…

Because she wasn't going to stay and spend any more time working her life away for people who couldn't appreciate her.

Sunny Island would have to find itself a new rancher.

**x-x-x  
><strong>^_^ So yep. Review and let me know if it's worth continuing or not!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note: **Finally, here's chapter 2! I know it took a while, but I'm still not really sure what kind of direction I want to take with this story, so if anyone has any suggestions...Also, a few weeks ago I posted a re-written version of chapter 1, so if you haven't already you might want to go back and reread. I know it's a pain, but I think it sounds a lot better now. XD Anyways, thank you for reading, and as always, let me know what you think!

**Chapter 2**

It was around noon when Elliot walked onto the ranch. He glanced around the field, but couldn't see Chelsea anywhere... He shrugged and went up to her house, knocking on the door a few times.

"Hey, Chelsea? My grandfather wants to know if you're still planning on helping us move the shipment of crates this evening. ….Chelsea?"

He glanced around again. It was really unusual for her to not be up yet. "I suppose she could have gone to visit somebody…She _did _look sorta down at yesterday's festival."

He walked over to the stable where she kept her horse and peeped inside. There was no fodder in the feed tray, and he knew she wouldn't have gone off anywhere without at least feeding her animals first. He walked back over to her door, growing more nervous by the second."Chelsea? If you're there, open up. If not, I'm going to open the door to make sure you're okay."

He waited a minute, but got no response so he pushed open the door, stunned to find all of her tools sitting in a pile around her table. A folded piece of paper was balancing on top…

**x-x-x  
><strong>  
>"Dang it." Natalie threw her cards down on the table and fished a coin out of her pocket as Taro laughed in delight.<p>

"I told you, whippersnapper! Nobody can beat me at poker!"

"Yeah, yeah. Next game is mine for sure…..What's _your _problem?" Natalie asked as Elliot ran into the room, slamming the door shut behind him with so much force that the paintings hanging on the wall almost fell down.

"H-here….Note….Chelsea." He said, gasping for air. "I-I think…she left…"

"Left? Left what?" Taro asked, reaching out for the piece of paper.

"T-the island."

"WHAT?" Natalie jumped out of her chair and went to stand behind Taro as he opened the note.

_Nobody appreciates me or the work that I do, so I have decided to retire from my job as this island's rancher. I will be gone by the time you get this letter. I won't tell you where I'm going, or when I'll be back, because I'm not sure of that myself. But I can't continue to run the ranch knowing the work I'm doing is going unacknowledged._

_Chelsea_

"Well then who's going to run the ranch?" Natalie asked.

"I don't know…." Taro folded the note backup and tossed it aside. "Gosh darn it! Why'd she have to go and do a thing like this?"

Elliot shrugged. "Maybe it was because you were so mean to her yesterday…"

This earned Elliot a bop on the head. "We ain't got time for your back sassing, whelp! What we need is a plan! Go tell the islanders to meet in the Meadow for an important announcement!"

Taro shook his head as Elliot walked outside. "Hmph. Kids today, always thinking the good honest truth is 'being mean'! Why, back in my day-"

"Uh, I think I'll go help Elliot." Natalie hurried outside, glad to have avoided one of Taro's tales of his youth.

**x-x-x  
><strong>  
>"Is it true? Chelsea left?"<p>

"But why?"

"What about the ranch?"

Taro pounded his stick on the ground. "Quiet down, everyone! By now I'm sure you've all heard that Chelsea has…_temporarily _left her position as this island's rancher."

"So…She's going to come back?"

"Well her note implied so. We just don't know when. But until then we need someone to take over her job. So if any of you have ever dreamed of running the ranch, now's your chance!"

Nobody moved, aside from Mark, who was jumping up and down in the back of the crowd yelling "Pick me! I want to do it! ME!"

"Let Mark do it." Chen said, crossing his arms. "He seems eager for the job."

"YES!" Mark ran over to Chen and held up his hand for a high five. Taro turned to Natalie.

"What do you think?"

"Well just a few weeks ago I saw Chelsea trying to teach him how to use her sickle, and he ended up chopping up all her cabbages."

"No wonder she didn't have much to choose from for the festival…" Taro muttered. "So you're saying he's unfit to run the ranch?"

Natalie shrugged. "I'm just saying he might do more harm than good with that eagerness of his."

Taro put his hand to his chin for a moment, then sighed, turning back to the crowd. "Okay. I've decided. Responsibility of the ranch will go to…  
>Each and every one of us!"<p>

There was a unanimous "HUH?" from the crowd.

"Think about it. Chelsea worked on the ranch all by herself. Just think of how successful we'll be if we all take turns working the ranch in teams! Mark, you seem enthusiastic about crops. Why don't you lead the group who will be working on the feild?"

Marks eyes lit up. "Like….A team captain?"

"Sure. Mirabelle and Julia, you guys show the animal team how to properly take care of the livestock."

Mirabelle put a hand to her chin. "Well sure, but…How long will it take? We've all got our own businesses to run too you know."

"Most of which rely on the well being of the ranch!" Taro countered. There was no hope of dissuading him now. "So everybody divvy up! Decide what team you want to work on! Because starting tomorrow we all become ranchers!"


	3. Chapter 3

I apologize for the extremely long gap between this update and the last one! I just got _so_ unbelievably stuck with this story….I tried to work through it, but I just couldn't write anything. So I put it aside for a while, and now I'm going to try and get a fresh start ! ^_^ So why don't we see what Chelsea's been up to since leaving the island?

**Chapter 3**

Chelsea sighed as she climbed yet another flight of stairs, and walked down yet another row of doors. She was positive this was the building where Vaughn had once mentioned he lived. She just didn't have a clue which _apartment _in this building was his. So she'd been forced to walk up and down each floor in the building, glancing at the nameplate by each door, and hoping that she'd be able to find his before she passed out from fatigue.

Or before someone found her behavior suspicious and called the cops.

Still, it wasn't like she had any other choice. She was quite proud of herself for leaving the island...but the problem was, she hadn't thought about where she was going to stay once she was _off _the island. She had thought about staying in a hotel for a few nights, but had quickly found that city hotels were too expensive. The only other thing she could think to do was find her boyfriend-of-quite-a-few-months, Vaughn, and hope he'd let her stay with him for a few days...

She had to climb another flight of stairs, and walk to the very end of that hallway before she saw it. Vaughn's name, glittering on a shiny gold nameplate by a simple black door. She let out a sigh of relief, and raised a fist to knock.

Then she paused.

She'd set out for his apartment complex at four that afternoon. It had taken her three hours to find the place, and then she wasn't sure how many hours she'd spent trying to locate his exact door. She was sure it was quite late, though, and figured waking him up by knocking on his door in the middle of the night wouldn't help her cause any...

She sighed, dropping her rucksack and sitting down by his door. "Guess I'll have to wait a while..."

**x-x-x**

Vaughn let out an annoyed sigh as a very loud ringing sound started coming from somewhere on his right. He stuck a hand out from under his quilt and waved it around until it found his alarm clock, then picked the clock up and tossed it halfway across the room. It landed in a pile of clothes, slightly muffling the sound.

It figured. He hadn't been able to sleep all night, and just when he was finally about to drift off, it was time to get up. Cursing whoever had invented alarm clocks, he sat up and stretched, then glanced in the direction of his front door.

"Wonder if the newspaper came yet…"

He got out of his bed and pulled on his usual black shirt and pants, then walked to his door and opened it, glancing down.

Nope, his paper hadn't arrived yet.

But it appeared someone had delivered his girlfriend over night.

He blinked a few times, then pinched himself on the arm, then closed his door and opened it again. When he finally convinced himself that Chelsea wasn't a figment of his imagination, he prodded her sleeping body with his foot. "Hey. It's almost noon."

She opened her eyes and sat up, her hair sticking out every which way. "What!"

He smirked. "...Kidding. It's 9 a.m. Like your hair, by the way."

She jumped, looking totally shocked to see him standing there. "Oh! Vaughn! Y-you're awake! Um..." She started trying to smooth down her unruly hair. "I-it's nice to see you."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You too. So what brings you here all of a sudden?"

She gave him an uneasy smile. "Er….I just felt like coming to visit you?"

"...Why does that sound more like a question than an answer?"

She sighed. "Okay, fine. Don't get mad, but I quit my job on the island."

"... Quit how?"

"I got ticked off with those people always taking advantage of me. So I packed my bag and left all my stupid farm tools in my house, and caught a boat off the island. And now here I am!"

Vaughn looked like he was full of a million questions he wanted to ask, and then all of a sudden a look of understanding came over his face. "Oh….I think I get it…."

She frowned. "What? Get what?"

He smirked. "…You lost another crop contest, didn't you?"

She turned red. "I….That's not….It's more than….!"

"Chelsea, you overreacted." He sighed and held out a hand to help her up. "And now you need somewhere to stay."

"…..Know it all…."

He smiled a little and led her inside his place. "You can stay here til Wednesday. Then you're gonna come back to the island with me.."

Her eyes grew wide. "No."

"Chelsea-"

"No."

"..You need someplace to stay, right…?"

She sighed, sitting on a chair. "…I'll consider it."

He shook his head, smiling despite himself.

Chelsea and her ideas…..

**x-x-x  
><strong>I'll try to stay more on top of this story, guys. I felt bad ignoring it for so long X/ I'm still not really cleared of my writer's block, but I think i'll be able to get back into this story.  
>Please, let me know what you guys think so far! (Like if this chapter was okay,..and if you'd like to see more ChelseaVaughn chapters in the future. ;) And thanks for all the reviews this story has gotten so far- I was surprized whan I saw so many XD Thank you for the feedback, It's so greatly appreciated!


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